By Haydn Gleed
-A return to form has blossomed for my beloved Cardiff City. In the space of a week, we played three games and won all three games including two games away from home. One of those wins occurred while I was recording the annual ROH Roster Evaluation audio show with Jason Powell (available for the members), and I can’t even begin to describe how difficult it was for me not to whoop and holla around the room when we scored a late winner. All of this means that I will be sitting in freezing temperatures watching us try to continue this run tonight when we play Norwich, so keep an eye on my Twitter page to see how quickly I became a rather large human icicle.
-This week’s blog is going to start with someone I never thought I would talk about as the headline act in my thoughts of the week blog. Booker T was terrible on Monday’s WWE Raw. I understand that when you are broadcasting live sometimes some things slip out that you don’t intend to say or make even sense in your own head only to be lost between the brain and the mouth, but after taking on this role for nearly six months you would think he would be improving at eliminating these clangers.
First, Booker said Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins beating Sheamus and Cesaro in singles matches didn’t mean they should get a tag team title shot. Later, he spoke about how Titus O’Neil would rather be a football player than a wrestler. I don’t think I need to go into detail why those two statements are insane within the WWE storyline narrative, but what I will say that Corey Graves and Michael Cole giving him a hard time about the statements didn’t help matters either. They should have moved on and let people forget about it.
I met Booker T a few years ago and he was a nice enough guy and his enthusiasm (in small doses) on the WWE pre-shows convey a sense of something special about to happen, but WWE needs to understand that the announcers are one of the most important tools on their broadcasts. Without them the fans at home might not follow along with the story as the company wants or have that piece of information that makes everything clear in addition to obviously promoting of your product. In order for them to be successful, they have to be seen as credible. Time and time again, Booker T undermines that.
-The developments with Matt Hardy this week were DELIGHTFUL.
-Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown Live was underwhelming. I still feel that they are in the funk period between a really hot show at Hell In A Cell and their involvement in Survivor Series. They are trying to tie up loose ends before the road to WrestleMania and I don’t feel anything is really clicking they way they want things to. I enjoy the continuing story of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn being the pain in the rear end of “management” but I can’t shift the feeling that they don’t really have any long term plans in the works for this storyline. Perhaps it’s the jumbo jet sized plot holes or the feeling of how exactly can you pay it off. For the time being, I will give the Smackdown creative team the benefit of the doubt. To highlight why I felt Smackdown was underwhelming, the most newsworthy moment was the Hype Bros breaking up and the human Duracell Bunny Mojo Rawley turning heel. When that is the case, it’s clearly not a great show.
-You just know that Vince McMahon came up with the name Absolution and is proud of it. Almost as much as his favorite champion of all time Abeyance.
-I have been quite negative so far this week, so lets talk about something a lot more positive in the form of Ring Of Honor and their build towards Final Battle 2017. Check out the weekly TV show if you’re not watching already. It’s not perfect, but it regularly feels that the hour show doesn’t waste a moment in terms of building up feuds or progressing storylines. It’s become a joy to watch every week. In a world where I’m regularly getting frustrated with the slap dash feel of WWE storylines, this is a nice relief to know there is a wrestling company that is still willing to put together proper stories while also having good to great wrestling matches.
-So Impact Wrestling busted out the turkey suit again. Anyways…
-That’s going to do it for this week. For those who have asked, I know I’m behind with Progress wrestling coverage, but I will catch up. I’ve had some technical problems watching the VOD content with my laptop and I just haven’t the time to sort it out. The issue is completely on my side but needs a bit of IT support style uninstall and reconfiguration, and I have enough of that in my real life job, but it will be sorted out soon. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and come on, you Bluebirds!!!
As always if you want to say hi or chat about anything wrestling then by all means find me on twitter @haydngleed or via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com
Always so negative about Impact. You don’t write opinion or review. You’re just sarcastically disrespectful to them. That won’t help them!
So you are Welsh, Haydn. Why are you writing ‘anyways’ and not ‘anyway’?